LIVE ON EARTH!
Ecofeminism and Art: a Planetary Symposium
Los Angeles - The Hague - Seoul
March 21st, 2025
During 24 hours around the world
Alternative Space LOOP - Seoul, Korea : 11am-7pm KST
WEST - The Hague, The Netherlands : 12am-8pm CET
The BRICK/ArtCenter - Los Angeles, California : 11am-7pm PST
Ecofeminism is a transnational movement that locates critical connections between gender oppression and the exploitation of natural resources. For over four decades, ecofeminist theorists, activists, and artists have drawn on their experiences, analysis, observations, and actions to address structural injustice and existential threats in an age of accelerating techno-industrial development. This symposium brings together an international and interdisciplinary group of thinkers and makers approaching systemic social and ecological justice concerns through the lens of art practice, art criticism, and art history. It is centered on the experience of feminists of all gender identities, and will address a wide range of topics such as historical and new materialism, anti-colonialism, afrofuturism, food sovereignty, and queer ecology, among many others. Challenging patriarchal and anthropocentric narratives, this series of discussions, presentation, performances, and screenings will help us “stay with the trouble” as together we navigate the meshwork of social, human, and non-human relations.
After a successful launch at The Brick in Los Angeles, the exhibition Life on Earth: Art & Ecofeminism is moving across the Atlantic to be staged at West Den Haag in The Hague, opening February 28, 2025. This symposium is part of the public programming attached to the exhibition, offering a global, digital and in-person event that will connect three dynamic centers of ecofeminist art and action. Following the sun around the Earth, the symposium will be staged over a 24-hour span, in three 8-hour sessions; it will begin on March 21th, 2025 at Alternative Space LOOP in Seoul, South Korea, then continue at West Den Haag in The Hague, the Netherlands, and finish up with The Brick at Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, California. This one-day event convenes scholars, artists, activists, scientists and cultural workers of various kinds exploring what artists and arts institutions do to support ecofeminist commitments, elaborating and testing the limits of institutions and the imperatives of social and political agency. Free and open to all audiences, this event will connect different localities contending with the contradictions and tensions between local experience and normative concepts, between local conditions and global climate models, between local advocacy and international solidarity.
Alternative Space LOOP - Seoul, Korea : 11am-7pm KST
With: Minja Gu with Lusi Sapitri, Hyunjoo Kim, Jason Kim, Hyunjung Lee, Mary Mellor, Ye-eun Min, and Natasha Tontey, and others
In most societies, cooking is regarded as women's labor, while only when male chefs cook in restaurants is it recognized as high culture. Minja Gu has developed projects that explore sociocultural aspects of food and cooking. The Ecofeminism Symposium at LOOP begins with Gu’s project In the Food for Love, a collaboration with marriage-immigrant Lusi Sapitri who prepares and shares Indonesian cuisine from her homeland.
The Ppaepeorl Project is a community art project centered on people who have served in brothels around Camp Stanley in Uijeongbu, an US military base established in 1952. It examines the relationships between institutionalized sex work related to US Army occupation, and the local residents who rely on this. Since the 2000s, with the downsizing of US troops in the area, the local economy has collapsed, leaving behind those who cannot afford to leave.
The symposium at LOOP brings together artists, activists, and researchers who have critically engaged with how female bodies, the exploitative structure of capitalism, and colonial histories intertwine to explore ecological alternatives. In this section of our 24-hour event connecting 3 locations across the planet, we discuss the experiences of women who are forced to migrate due to capitalism and the emotions they carry, centering the physical space of Korea.
Additionally, there will be presentations from participants of the Eco-Feminism Workshop, who will share research and reflections they have been developing since May on the structures and nature of the existing world, and new social possibilities.
Moderated by LOOP Director Ji Yoon Yang, this symposium will inaugurate the 24-hour cycle with a program of cooking, eating, talks, screenings and discussions.
West Den Haag - The Hague, The Netherlands : 12am-8pm CET
With: Ursula Biemann, Isabel Cavalho, Chihiro Geuzebroek, Ruth Nyambura, Eliana N'Zualo/ Womin, Philsan Omar Osman, anna andrejew, Irene Jahn, Karolina Rupp, Veronica Perales, Katerina Sidorova, Müge Yilmaz, Yvette Teeuwen, MaYa and others
The rise of authoritarianism and the erosion of democracy in the imperialist core have fueled backlash against feminism and environmentalism, making it more urgent than ever to unite these movements. Ecofeminism emphasizes the interconnected exploitation of women and nature under capitalist patriarchy, which understands both as resources to be exploited for profit. Women, burdened with the physical and emotional labor of sustaining humanity, often bear the greatest suffering in times of crisis. Maria Mies tells us that men developed weapons first to subordinate women, it took orders of magnitude of violence to maintain patriarchy which continues to this day. Ecofeminists see this dual exploitation as part of a broader pattern of ecological destruction, emphasizing the need for global solidarity among women to dismantle these oppressive systems.
The symposium ‘Life On Earth!’ at West Den Haag brings together radical practitioners from diverse regions (20°W to 50°E) to explore the challenges facing ecofeminism today. Our presenters engage with the legacies of colonialism, migration and racism that transfuse eco-feminist concerns and action, with a particular focus on cultivating North-South solidarity. connecting artistic and activist approaches, traversing conventional disciplinary boundaries. Ruth Nyambura will join our symposium to give us a eco-socialist pan-african analysis of the challenges facing women organizers in several African countries. Philsan Omar Osman will hold an intensive workshop on anti-racist ecofeminism and Black geographies. Chihiro Guezebroek will give a transdisciplinary report on her work with indigenous women in South America.
Ecofeminism must balance local and universal approaches. While rooted in diverse lived experiences, it requires international solidarity to address global systemic issues. Local contributions include an ecofeminist council, on hand to raise questions, comment and spur discussions throughout the day, performances by Yvette Teeuwen and MaYa exploring embodied thinking and situated knowledge, panels, screenings, workshops and other activities to encourage exchange and support organization and solidarity. The program, convened and moderated by Baruch Gottlieb will consist of in-person and hybrid activities, some of which will be streamed and some which will be closed for registered participants only.
The BRICK- Los Angeles, California : 11am-7pm PST
With: Jane Chin Davidson, Martina Manterola and Carmen Sera of colectivo amasijo, Yasmine Ostendorf-Rodriguez, Janet Sarbanes, Leslie Labowitz Starus, Leah Thomas, and more to be announced
Representing the Americas, the symposium at Art Center in Los Angeles will be co-facilitated by art historian and Art Center dean of the Division of Interdisciplinary Studies Jane McFadden, and Life on Earth exhibition curator Catherine Taft, deputy director and curator of The Brick. The symposium in Los Angeles will feature a Keynote, panel conversations, an interactive performance, video screenings, and celebration to close out the 24-hour event. Drawing inspiration from the scholarly publication on ecofeminist art co-edited by McFadden and Taft (forthcoming in late 2025), this day of conversations examines both ecofeminist art histories and possible futures for lasting strategies in cooperation, adaptation, rehabilitation, and creative expression. While bringing together intergenerational and interdisciplinary scholarly participants, the symposium will highlight practices in North, Central, and South America, and will feature a communal gathering by Mexico-City based art and research collective colectivo amasijo, co-presented by the L.A. nonprofits Active Cultures and The Brick. This performative workshop takes the form of a circular procession and communal meal to connect with the cycles of the traditional farming system of the Milpa, the “three sisters” technology of planting, and the spring equinox of March 21st. colectivo amasijo will guide participants through an intimate performance to touch, gather, and bind ingredients foraged from the Milpa and the nearby hills of Pasadena. It will culminate in an offering of endemic foods harvested by the artists during their agricultural journey in the Yucatán and La Milpa, La Escuela (the site of their field work).